Ayer, Massachusetts
Ayer () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Originally part of Groton, it was incorporated February 14, 1871, and became a major commercial railroad junction. The town was home to Camp Stevens, a training camp for Massa ...
) is an
American writer
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry
...
of
speculative poetry
Speculative poetry is a genre of poetry that focusses on fantastic, science fictional and mythological themes. It is also known as science fiction poetry or fantastic poetry. It is distinguished from other poetic genres by being categorized by it ...
and
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
, as well as an impressionist painter on
Nantucket Island
Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...
.
Background
His mother, Barbara Brown Frazier, was an oil painter, educated by
Emil Gruppe
Emile Albert Gruppé (1896–1978) was an American painter, known for impressionistic landscapes and Massachusetts coastal and marine paintings.cryptoanalysis - code breaking - for
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
security at
Fort Devens
Fort Devens is a United States Army Reserve military installation in the towns of Ayer and Shirley, in Middlesex County and Harvard in Worcester County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Due to extensive environmental contamination it was li ...
, a post he obtained after serving in the Army with a small contingent of Americans during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
at
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
, the famous codebreaking center in England.
Frazier was educated at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
, where as an undergraduate, after being misplaced in a first course, he was allowed to take graduate courses in poetry at the
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...
.
Move to Nantucket Island
In the mid-1970s, he moved to
Nantucket Island
Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...
(his distant relatives were among the early settlers there), where an
artists colony
An art colony, also known as an artists' colony, can be defined two ways. Its most liberal description refers to the organic congregation of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, often drawn by areas of natural beauty, the prior existence o ...
existed. He married Karol Marie Lindquist, a maker of the Nantucket Lightship Basket, in 1978, and attended the
Clarion Workshop
Clarion is a six-week workshop for aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. Originally an outgrowth of Damon Knight's and Kate Wilhelm's Milford Writers' Conference, held at their home in Milford, Pennsylvania, United States, it was founded i ...
in
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...
in 1980 (and returned there as the assistant in 1981).
He also began a career in oil painting then, which after a hiatus to try working as a fiction writer from 1988 to 1998 (he sold 60 or so stories and was a regular attendee at the Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop), he resumed in 1998.
Frazier freelances as a
graphic design
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...
er, for a time designing books for SF publisher Mark V. Ziesing and was art director for ''Nantucket Magazine'' from 1995 - 2005.
He was president of the Artists Association of Nantucket from 1999–2004, and now works as their Curator of Exhibitions.
In 2016, he had his 15th consecutive solo exhibition of oil paintings at the Old Spouter Gallery on
Nantucket Island
Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...
.
In 2007, his article on painter Frank Swift Chase was published in ''Historic Nantucket'', a publication of the Nantucket Historical Association.
Science fiction
His first
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
story, ''Across Those Endless Skies'', appeared in ''In the Field of Fire'' (1987). He has won the
Rhysling Award
__NOTOC__
The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. Unlike most literary awards, which are named for the creator of the award, the subject of the award, or a noted member of t ...
three times: for Best Long Poem in 1994, and for Best Short Poem in 1980 and 1989. In 1984, Frazier edited the landmark anthology of SF poetry ''Burning With A Vision: Poetry of Science and the Fantastic'' (Owlswick Press).
He is a founding member of the
Science Fiction Poetry Association
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) is a society based in the United States with the aim of fostering an international community of writers and readers interested in poetry pertaining to the genres of science fiction, fantasy, ...
, and a past editor of their newsletter, ''Star*Line''. He also edited and published one of the early magazines of SF poetry, ''The Speculative Poetry Review'' (later titled ''TASP''). As a historian, Frazier has written several articles on the evolution of the SF poetry movement...the most recent being a 2005 primer on the Rhysling Awards for the poetry anthology, ''The Alchemy of Stars'', the
Rhysling Award
__NOTOC__
The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. Unlike most literary awards, which are named for the creator of the award, the subject of the award, or a noted member of t ...
Science Fiction Poetry Association
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) is a society based in the United States with the aim of fostering an international community of writers and readers interested in poetry pertaining to the genres of science fiction, fantasy, ...
named Frazier a Grand Master] in 2005.
His ''Robot Origami'', from the
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...
March 2005 was nominated for the 2006
Rhysling Award
__NOTOC__
The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. Unlike most literary awards, which are named for the creator of the award, the subject of the award, or a noted member of t ...
.
His ''When Will Time Unfold'', from the Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Spring 2006, was nominated for the 2007
Rhysling Award
__NOTOC__
The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. Unlike most literary awards, which are named for the creator of the award, the subject of the award, or a noted member of t ...
.
His collaborative poem with
Bruce Boston
Bruce Boston (born 1943) is an American speculative fiction writer and poet.
Early years
Bruce Boston was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California.Diane SeversonInterview with Bruce Boston''Amazing Stories'' March 15, 2013 (accessed S ...
, ''Chronicles of the Mutant Rain Forest received first place in the 2006 '' Locus (magazine), Locus'' Online Poetry Poll for "Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem".
In 2016, 25 years after first winning the award, he won the Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine Reader's Choice Award for poetry.
Frazier's work is taught to students as ''the'' major American SF poet; this is done (academic year 2005-2006) at the Faculty of Philology and Arts in the city of
Kragujevac
Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Serbia, and is situated on ...
,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
.
Family
He and his wife have one daughter, born in 1973, Timalyne (also a graduate of Clarion and an SF writer), and two granddaughters, Phoebe and Chloe.
Bibliography
* ''Family Secrets''. Eel Grass Press, 1993.
* ''The Daily Chernobyl and other poems''. Cover by Katie Trinkle Legge, Anamnesis Press, 2000, winner of the Anamnesis Press Poetry Chapbook Competition of 1999.
* ''The Art Colony on Nantucket: Sixty Years of Contemporary Art''. with George Thomas, The AAN Press, 2005.
* 'Exiled on Main Street'', The AAN Press, 2011.
* 'The Waterfront Artists, Painters Who Changed Nantucket'', The AAN Press, 2012.
* "Phantom Navigation", cover by Margaret Fox, Dark Regions Press, 2012.
* "Visions of the Mutant Rain Forest", in collaboration with Bruce Boston, Crystal Lake Publishing, 2017.